


Changes

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Family, Gen, Mutants, mentions of the Xavier Institute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 19:32:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7327453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lilo was fifteen when her mutant power manifested.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

** Changes **

Lilo was fifteen when her mutant power manifested.

Mertle Edmonds’ mutant power had manifested the year before, during which time period anything that got too close to Mertle showed a worrying tendency to burst into flames, particularly when Mertle was feeling upset or angry. Mertle had promptly been shipped off by her parents to some boarding school in New York state, and hadn’t been seen again until the summer vacation. Lilo had spotted her slouching around, dressed head-to-toe in black clothing that was seriously unsuitable for the Hawaiian climate, looking sullen, and with the newfound ability to psychokinetically set things on fire, instead of just by accident. None of Mertle’s old friends seemed to know what to do about this, and mostly dealt with it by avoiding her. 

Lilo had almost felt sorry for the other girl, except that ever since Lilo’s parents had died when Lilo was little Mertle had gone out of her way to try and make Lilo miserable, and part of Lilo couldn’t help but feel a certain vengeful satisfaction that Mertle was discovering, for the first time in her life, what it felt like to have the tables turned and be the ‘weird’ outcast herself for once.

It was only during the next summer vacation that Lilo’s own power manifested, marking the third big change in her life. The first had been the death of her parents; the second, the appearance of Stitch in her life. 

Nani and David had both freaked out the first time Lilo had levitated something across the room. They might live with aliens, but even that had become a kind of normal over the years, and Lilo suddenly having weird powers was something new and different. They’d tried not to freak out in her presence, of course, but Lilo could tell when her sister and her brother-in-law were freaking out.

Lilo snuck out of her bedroom late that night and sat at the top of the stairs, listening to their argument in the living room over what to do about her mutant power. Stitch had joined her shortly afterwards.

“It’ll be okay,” he said, somehow knowing exactly what Lilo needed to hear. His English had improved enormously over the years.

“How do you know?” Lilo asked, because she needed the reassurance. Right now _nothing_ felt like it was going to be okay, ever again. Lilo hadn’t felt like this in a long, long time.

Stitch shrugged.

“I know Nani, and David,” he said. “They love you.”

“But what if that’s not enough?”

“Then you have me,” said Stitch. “Always.”

“Always?” Lilo repeated, feeling like a lonely little girl again.

“Always,” Stitch said, his expression solemn, like he was making a vow.

Lilo wrapped an arm around him – long gone were the days when they had been the same size: these days, Lilo was taller than Nani – and they sat and listened to Nani and David as they slowly talked themselves into some acceptance of the fact that Lilo could move things with the power of her mind.

The days that followed were awkward, uneasy, as everyone tried to act like nothing had changed. Jumba and Pleakley were the best at it, besides Stitch: as aliens on another planet, to them Lilo’s power was just another strange facet of life on Earth. David was the next best at it. Being a fairly relaxed kind of guy, he rolled with the fact that Lilo was a mutant pretty well, only making the occasional gaffe that made Lilo bite her lip against all the things she wanted to say. 

Nani, though… Nani made an effort, Lilo could tell, Nani really did, but she couldn’t seem to treat Lilo normally, anymore. There were silences in which Nani hesitated over what to say, moments when Lilo would use her new power and Nani would just _look_ at her, like they were strangers instead of sisters. The words Lilo wanted to say would build up inside her until finally they would explode out, and she and Nani would scream at each other until Lilo stormed upstairs to her room or Nani stalked outside onto the front patio, slamming the screen door behind her.

Lilo felt like she was losing her big sister, and didn’t know what to do about it.

“You two used to do this all the time,” Stitch said suddenly one afternoon, when Lilo was lying on her bed, grounded for calling Nani names, and trying not to cry and feeling angry about it. “Do you remember?”

“What are you talking about?” Lilo mumbled, wiping at her eyes. It was sometimes strange, the way that Stitch could remember things about the time they’d spent together that Lilo had long forgotten. She’d been only five years old when she’d first met Stitch, after all, and most people didn’t remember very much from when they were that young. But Stitch remembered everything.

“You and Nani used to yell at each other all the time,” Stitch said, from his seat at Lilo’s desk. “Then you’d come upstairs and scream into your pillow, and tell me all about your feelings. You stopped yelling at each other a while after you adopted me, though. Do you remember?”

Lilo sniffled a little bit.

“No.”

“You got past it,” said Stitch. He regarded Lilo with huge dark eyes. Sometimes, looking at him, Lilo knew that she was looking at someone who had been designed as a predator, a destructive force designed only to destroy. But Stitch had been part of her life for so long that the thought always caused a sense of bafflement, because Stitch had been her rock for almost as long as Lilo could remember. Sometimes he caused trouble and mischief, and sometimes Lilo got angry at him, but he was her best friend and always had been, and Lilo couldn’t imagine that ever changing.

“You’ll get past this too,” Stitch added, his voice certain, and in that moment Lilo was incredibly grateful for his presence in her life. 

“I hope so,” Lilo said, and stared at her bedroom wall, which was covered with posters of her favourite musicians and various photographs and postcards from all the places Lilo had visited. 

“You will,” said Stitch. And then, because he was Stitch, he asked: “Want to sneak out the window and go rollerblading?”

“That sounds like a sure way to get into trouble,” said Lilo. “Let’s do it.”

So Stitch climbed out the window first, and Lilo threw down their rollerblades and her safety helmet for him to catch and place on the ground. A moment later Lilo swung herself out the window, and jumped. Stitch caught her easily, a few feet from the ground, and Lilo righted herself, and sent him a small grin. Stitch’s incredible strength in comparison to his size was hard for some people to remember, but Lilo never had any trouble.

Lilo sat on the ground and put on her rollerblades, lacing them up, as Stitch did the same. Then, as Stitch waited, she put on her helmet and did up the clasp under her chin, before holding out her hands. Stitch pulled her to her feet without needing to be asked, and the two of them went skating down the hill and down the street.

Lilo slowed her pace near the candy store, wondering if it was worth ducking inside to buy some candy, or if the extra weight would only throw her off-balance.

Mertle was standing outside the store, eating a candy bar while wearing a black-shirt that said _‘MUTANT PRIDE’_ in large letters. She stared at Lilo and Stitch as they came to a stop.

“Hey,” said Lilo, to be polite, and was about to skate past her when Mertle actually answered.

“I heard you’re a mutant.”

Lilo paused.

“Yeah, I am,” she said, and then added, “So what?”

Mertle gave her a long look.

“You know I go to a school for people like us, right?”

“Mutants, you mean?” Lilo said, feeling off-balance at the ‘us.’ Never, in all the years she’d known Mertle, had Mertle ever behaved as though she and Lilo were anything but Queen Bee and outcast. There had never been an ‘us.’

“Yeah. It’s full of weirdos like you, you’d fit right in. They have a fund for students who can’t afford the fees, and they’d probably even let your friend in, if you asked.”

Lilo stared at Mertle.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked finally. “You hate me.”

Mertle shrugged, looking faintly uncomfortable. 

“Because now I know what it feels like for everyone to reject you for what you are. I’m not going to say I’m sorry, but – mutants have to stick together, you know? There’s too many of _them_ and not enough of _us_ for us to survive, otherwise.”

Lilo stared at Mertle for a moment longer, then glanced at Stitch. They shared a moment of wordless communication.

“Thanks for telling me,” said Lilo to Mertle. “But I’m happy where I am.”

Mertle’s face was full of incomprehension.

“But half this island thinks you’re a freak. At Xavier’s you’d be accepted.”

“I’m already accepted,” Lilo said firmly. “To the people that count. No one else matters. But thanks anyway,” she added, because Mertle was trying to help, in her own way. 

She entered the candy store, leaving Mertle staring after her, looking like she was trying desperately to understand. When Lilo came out of the store, with a bag of candy, Mertle was gone.

Lilo and Stitch skated home, and snuck back into the house through one of the back windows to avoid the creaking of the front door. Lilo sneaked up the stairs, Stitch following, and carefully eased open her bedroom door… to see Nani sitting sideways on her bed, staring at the photo of her and Lilo and Stitch and David outside the gates of Graceland. It had been taken when Lilo was six years old, and Lilo could still remember how excited she’d been, to see Elvis’ residence. She’d been obsessed with Elvis, back then.

Nani’s face as she stared at the photograph was sad.

“Hey,” said Lilo, her voice quiet. Nani didn’t look around for a moment, but when she did, the expression on her face was deeply wistful.

“You snuck out.” There was no anger in Nani’s voice.

Stitch dumped his armful of rollerblades on Lilo’s floor and scuttled out of the room, leaving Lilo and Nani to talk in private. He’d learned a modicum of tact, over the years, even if it wasn’t much.

“I ran into Mertle outside the candy shop,” said Lilo, putting down her bag of candy and moving forward to sit on the bed next to Nani. “She said there’s a school for people like me.”

Nani looked at her.

“Do you want to go?” There was both fear and resignation in Nani’s voice.

Lilo shook her head.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said.

“Oh, Lilo.” Nani’s voice was soft. “I know you don’t, but maybe it would be better for you there, among other people like you, who can teach you how to use your abilities.”

“Are you trying to tell me you want to send me away?”

“Of course not,” said Nani. “But one of my responsibilities is to make sure I’m making the best choice for _you_ , not the one I’d like to make. I know it would be hard, going to a new place and leaving us behind, but…”

“No buts,” said Lilo. “I’m not going.” She folded her arms.

“I talked to Mertle’s mother,” said Nani. “She said that the school Mertle goes to sometimes provides tutors to students who can’t attend for whatever reason. If you don’t want to go to school there, well, maybe one of their tutors would be willing to come out here for the rest of the summer.”

Lilo looked hard at Nani.

“You’ve already talked to them, haven’t you?”

“I said that I wouldn’t make a decision without consulting you first,” said Nani. “It’s your life. But I think it would help you.”

Lilo thought about it for a long moment.

“Yeah, okay,” she said finally. “After all, if I have awesome telekinetic powers, I should know exactly how to use them.” 

Nani smiled a little, although she still looked sad.

“What?” Lilo asked.

“You’re growing up so fast,” said Nani. “Sometimes I look at you and I see a young woman, someone I’m not sure I know.”

“I’m still me,” said Lilo firmly. “Growing up and having a mutant power doesn’t change that. I’m still the same person I’ve always been.”

“I know,” said Nani. “But you’re also changing into the adult you’re going to be one day, and sometimes I have trouble with that.”

Lilo wasn’t sure what to say.

“But no matter what happens, I’ll always love you,” said Nani, and Lilo bit her lip at the sudden prickling of tears in her eyes.

“I’ll always love you too,” said Lilo.

“Is everything okay now?” asked Stitch from the doorway, where he was eating some of Lilo’s bag of candy.

“Hey!” Lilo said. “That’s mine!” She leaped off the bed and tackled Stitch to the floor and tried to grab her bag of candy back, but Stitch mushed his hand in her face and took off running.

“Ugh!”

“Of course, for all you’re growing up, sometimes you still act like you’re five years old,” said Nani, but Lilo was already racing down the stairs after Stitch, his gleeful cackling filling the air while Lilo shouted threats in his direction.

Ten minutes later they were sitting on the front patio, sharing the bag of candy and watching the sun set.

“So. Is everything okay now?” Stitch repeated his earlier query.

Lilo considered the question.

“Not yet,” she said. “But I think it will be.”

Stitch nodded and leaned into her side, and Lilo grabbed another piece of candy as the sun sank down behind the horizon, leaving the sky festooned with differing shades of pink and purple and orange. As Lilo looked out at the beautiful sight, she felt more at peace than she had for a while.

“Yeah,” she repeated. “I really think it will be.”  
 


End file.
